Susannah and the Elders

The tale of Susanna, a virtuous wife spied on and then blackmailed by two lecherous elders while she bathed, gave 16th-century Venetian painters a respectable excuse to paint a nude, and they came back to it often. Veronese made this version around 1580. An X-ray of the canvas reveals second thoughts. He first painted a more aggressive scene, with one of the old men grabbing at the arm she uses to cover herself, then toned it down into something calmer. The two elders now lean in from the shadows of a garden while Susanna turns away. About 70 years later the painting was bought in Venice by the painter Velazquez, sent there to stock the Spanish royal collection, and it hangs today in the Prado in Madrid.